Candidates list city office qualifications

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

A total of 14 candidates for Van Wert city elected offices spoke Tuesday evening during a Candidates’ Night hosted by the Heart Land Patriots that was held in the Fireside Room of Trinity Friends Church.

In addition to three unopposed candidates, City Law Director John Hatcher, City Auditor Martha Balyeat and First Ward Councilman John Marshall, 11 candidates — all Republicans — seeking primary nominations for six city elected positions talked about their qualifications and why they were running for office.

Ken Mengerink and Jerry Mazur, both candidates to replace Don Farmer as mayor, talked about their qualifications for that position.

Mengerink stressed his governmental experience, which includes eight years on City Council in the 1980s, more than 20 years as a member of the Van Wert City Board of Education — 14 as president — and 14 years on the Vantage Board of Education, eight as president, and his current two-year term as City Council president.

Mazur has spoken about his business experience, including management positions with Otis Elevator, while he is also completing his first term on City Council representing the Third Ward.

Both candidates listed economic development as their priorities, but each took a different stance on the issue.

Mengerink was solidly behind the Ohio State Extension-Van Wert City Economic Development Office, noting he felt the agency was doing a good job of bringing jobs to the community, while also listing the Niswonger Performing Arts Center and Wassenberg Art Center as positives for economic development.

He did state that there were jobs available in the city that weren’t being filled because of a lack of qualified candidates, or that job seekers could not pass a drug test.

Mazur, on the other hand, said he feels the city and county economic development entities must come together and cooperate if local ED goals are to be met. Mazur also said he thinks the city should form an advisory group of people between the ages of 25 and 50 to come up with ways to provide growth for the Van Wert community.

Stan Agler and Pete Weir, the two candidates seeking Mengerink’s City Council president’s position, talked about their visions and qualifications.

Agler, a longtime City Council member who also served as city mayor for 12 years, talked about his governmental experience, while also listing some goals for City Council if he is elected Council president, including more contact with state legislators and setting up an “early warning” procedure to keep City Council informed of pending state legislation that could affect the city.

Agler also listed some of the duties of Council president and said he wanted to set up a review of established city contracts to see whether some have outlived their usefulness.

Weir, a comparative newcomer to city politics, with just one term as Fourth Ward representative on City Council, spoke of his management and leadership experience, including a career as an office and non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Navy and his current position as the head of Vantage’s Industry and Technology Adult Education programs, as well as his education, which includes computer and engineering technology degrees, and the energy and drive he would bring to the Council president’s position.

Weir also spoke of his desire to serve the community and touted economic development as being crucial to the continued health of the community.

Also speaking were former mayor Louis Ehmer and incumbent Fourth Ward Councilman Steve Trittschuh, who are both seeking the Fourth Ward Council seat.

Ehmer talked about his management experience with Chrysler Amplex, in addition to his governmental experience as mayor and a City Council member.

Trittschuh, a systems analyst for Central Insurance Companies, talked about what he learned during his term on City Council and his wish to work to improve his adopted community and to find additional funds for street repairs and other important needs.

The evening concluded with remarks from five candidates seeking the three at-large City Council seats. Candidates include incumbent Jon Tomlinson, current Mayor Don Farmer, and three relative newcomers: local businessman Fred Fisher, retired executive Denny Staude and local realtor Warren Straley.

Tomlinson talked about his reasons for continuing on City Council and his wishes for more input from city residents on important issues, while both Staude, a former Borden’s and Fisher Cheese manager, and Fisher, who owns a local maintenance/repair business, spoke of their business experience, and how that experience could be a benefit to City Council.

Farmer talked about his political experience as mayor and as a City Council member, while Straley, the youngest of the five candidates, talked about how he would like to see improvements to the city that would draw more young people here.